Canary Media: "In North Carolina, conservative clean energy supporters aren't worried." Mark Fleming is the head of Conservatives for Clean Energy, a Raleigh-based nonprofit that brings together lobbyists, consultants, and politicians on the right who support clean energy. Personally, I see no conflict in this concept at all. "The group formed a decade ago, not long before Trump’s first term began, and is now active in six Southeast states." On Tuesday, together with the Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy, it held its biennial luncheon in downtown Raleigh. “It was an election about the economy and immigration,” explained Paul Shumaker, one such pollster and a fixture at these gatherings. Apparently Trump and his hostile, mostly fact-free rants on the campaign trail about wind energy and the climate crisis got little mention during the formal presentations. "On technologies such as offshore wind—which the incoming president frequently lambasts—perhaps the administration and even the man himself can be convinced of its economic benefits, attendees suggested." Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican who supports offshore wind in the Commonwealth, ​“will be at the top of the list of conservative policy makers in terms of encouraging the Trump administration to look at the positives on offshore wind.” The clean economy group E2 found that tens of thousands of jobs + $10 billion will be added to the state's GDP by the nine new projects announced in North Carolina the year after the IRA’s passage, from lithium processing to vehicle-charging equipment plants. "No matter what, most of the luncheon attendees remained focused on incremental reforms in North Carolina—where the power dynamics are largely unchanged after Nov. 5. Trump won the state, but Democrat Josh Stein trounced a scandal-plagued Republican to win the governor’s race." Fleming sums it up this way: "“Governing is different than campaigning.” My money is on the continued rollout of clean energy.
